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Charity can't pick up the food stamp slack: Editorial

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The shelves are often full at the nation's food banks, such as the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, in the weeks leading to Thanksgiving. But cuts to the federal food stamp program are placing a greater burden on charity organizations to fill the holes in the government safety net.
(Ashley Peskoe/NJ.com)

Cuts to the U.S. food stamp program will mean 1.9 billion fewer meals for hungry Americans in 2014. That’s more than half the number of meals the country’s food banks already are expected to serve. If House Republicans succeed in cutting $40 billion more from the program over the next decade, another 1.5 billion meals will be wiped out.

Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program thinned the monthly food budgets for 47 million Americans. Many will ask a local food pantry to help fill the gap. At the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, calls for help are up 50 percent this month.

Further SNAP cuts will overwhelm the nonprofit food banks. Charity can’t be a long-term replacement for government safety nets. In New Jersey, cuts totaled $90 million a year and reduced monthly allowances for 873,000 people — 10 percent of the state, the vast majority being children, elderly or the working poor.

"We can’t make up the slack for that," says Diane Riley, the Community FoodBank’s advocacy director.

Food banks are built to help solve temporary emergency hardships such as job loss or illness. Should they be expected to fill in when the government decides to save money by letting people go hungry?

This month’s cut was the result of Congress failing to extend a 2009 stimulus plan that had expanded SNAP benefits. More reductions are expected; the Senate has also proposed cuts, though less drastic. House Republicans say cutting food stamps will reduce the federal deficit. They say SNAP’s skyrocketing enrollment proves there’s fat to be cut: That’s why they would force as many as 6 million people off food assistance, and slash benefits for those who are left.

They’re right about the numbers: Before the Great Recession, in 2006, more than 26 million Americans collected SNAP benefits. By 2010, it was more than 40 million. Food banks saw a similar trend: They served 25 million people in 2006, and 37 million by 2010.

With so many people out of work and wages falling, it’s no surprise that demand for food stamps goes up. In the eyes of Republicans, a bulging SNAP is evidence of waste and fraud. What they’re missing is that food stamps are a big part of the economic recovery.

SNAP is a near-perfect economic stimulus. Every dollar is spent in local communities, boosting growth and jobs for grocers, shop owners, farmers and other food producers. For recipients, food stamps help prevent crime and deeper poverty. Well-fed children perform better in school, increasing future earning power. At work, productivity suffers when employees are hungry.

To make up for SNAP’s worst-case cuts, food banks would have to double their resources. Yes, donors are more generous around Thanksgiving and the December holidays — but not by double. What happens come January?

Charities aren’t immune to cutbacks, either: The federal government donates fewer farm goods to food banks than it has in the past.

When families’ food budgets fall short, they’ve been able to turn to their local food banks. Increasingly, nonprofits are filling the monthly gaps after unemployment checks and food stamps run out. It’s an unsustainable demand.

Congress is still debating whether to cut SNAP by the $40 billion approved in the House, or the Senate’s more modest $4 billion over 10 years. In either case, they’re voting for people to go hungry. If Washington expect its cuts will be covered by charity — so successful for so long at fighting hunger in bad times — they may find the food banks will collapse under the weight.